The surprising properties of biomaterials are the results of billions of years of evolution. Generally, biomaterials are assembled under mild conditions with very limited supply of constituents available for living organism, and their amazing properties largely result from the sophisticated hierarchical structures. Following the biomimetic principles to prepare manmade materials has drawn great research interests in materials science and engineering. In this review, we summarize the recent progress in fabricating bioinspired materials with the emphasis on mimicking the structure from one to three dimensions. Selected examples are described with a focus on the relationship between the structural characters and the corresponding functions. For one-dimensional materials, spider fibers, polar bear hair, multichannel plant roots and so on have been involved. Natural structure color and color shifting surfaces, and the antifouling, antireflective coatings of biomaterials are chosen as the typical examples of the two-dimensional biomimicking. The outstanding protection performance, and the stimuli responsive and self-healing functions of biomaterials based on the sophisticated hierarchical bulk structures are the emphases of the three-dimensional mimicking. Finally, a summary and outlook are given.

Inspired by the remarkable adhesion of mussel, dopamine, a mimicking adhesive molecule, has been widely used for surface modification of various materials ranging from organic to inorganic. However, dopamine and its derivatives are expensive which impede their application in large scale. Herein, we replaced dopamine with low-cost catechol and polyamine (only 8% of the cost of dopamine), which could be polymerized in an alkaline solution and deposited on the surfaces of various materials. By using this cheap and simple modification method, polypropylene (PP) separator could be transformed from hydrophobic to hydrophilic, while the pore structure and mechanical property of the separator remained intact. The uptake of electrolyte increased from 80% to 270% after the hydrophilic modification. Electrochemical studies demonstrated that battery with the modified PP separator had a better Coulombic efficiency (80.9% to 85.3%) during the first cycle at a current density of 0.1 C, while the discharging current density increased to 15 C and the discharge capacity increased by 1.4 times compared to the battery using the bare PP separator. Additionally, the modification allowed excellent stability during manifold cycles. This study provides new insights into utilizing low-cost chemicals to mimic the mussel adhesion and has potential practical application in many fields.

Aerogels are a family of highly porous materials whose applications are commonly restricted by poor mechanical properties. Herein, thiol-ene chemistry is employed to synthesize a series of novel bridged silsesquioxane (BSQ) precursors with various alkoxy groups. On the basis of the different hydrolyzing rates of the methoxy and ethoxy groups, robust superhydrophobic BSQ aerogels with tailorable morphology and mechanical performances have been prepared. The flexible thioether bridge contributes to the robustness of the as-formed aerogels, and the property can be tuned on the basis of the distinct combinations of alkoxy groups with the density of the aerogels almost unchanged. To the best of our knowledge, the lowest density among the ambient pressure dried aerogels is obtained. Further, potential application of the aerogels for oil/water separation and acoustic materials has also been presented.